AE’s letter is enshrined in the literature on the strike, but one never hears of Murphy’s letter to the Daily Citizen, in which he responded to the charge that he had produced the state of affairs existing in Dublin. ‘At the Court of Inquiry at Dublin Castle’, he declared, ‘I was cross-examined for hours by … Read more
ITGWU founded The ITGWU marked the birth of the modern Irish labour movement. Less than 10% of Irish workers were unionised at this time, and most of these were in British-based unions. In Dublin especially, many activists felt neglected by British labour and argued for an Irish-based movement. As an NUDL official, Jim had said … Read more
Sir,—There are many good things in Ruan O’Donnell’s appraisal of my book Lone Crusader: David Thornley and the Intellectuals (reviews, HI 21.3, May/June 2013) and I know it appears churlish to draw attention to an error. David’s famous television broadcast in which, according to Jack Lynch, David swung popular feeling against the Fianna Fáil proposal … Read more
Sir,—Tadhg Moloney’s letter on tobacco-growing in Ireland (HI 21.3, May/June 2013) reminds me that, somewhere in my possession, I have a plain white ‘twenties’ box on which is printed in green ‘Cashel cigarettes’. In my youth I located this in a loft beside the avenue leading up to Cashel’s then deanery, once the palace of … Read more
Sir,—I write to register some disagreement with Daniel Downer’s article ‘Irish attitudes to slavery during the American Civil War’ (HI 21.3, May/June 2013). First, the argument is somewhat of a straw-man construction. No one has doubted that many, and probably most, Irish emigrants to the US in the Civil War era took an extreme white … Read more